Hydrocarbon fluid streams, including both liquid and gas streams, are often contaminated with mercury compounds. Sorbents containing supported metal sulfides, such as copper sulfide (CuS), have been used to scavenge mercury from hydrocarbon fluid streams by reaction 1.2CuS+Hg→HgS+Cu2S  (1)
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,777 describes a solid mass that contains a carrier and sulfided copper as an absorbent for mercury from a gas or a liquid. CuS based materials for Hg removal are offered by Axens, Johnson Matthey and others for applications in the natural gas and hydrocarbon industries.
Prior art methods of producing copper sulfide sorbents include a two-step process. A copper carbonate is first decomposed to cupric oxide and the cupric oxide is subsequently sulfided to produce the active copper sulfide component of the sorbent. The decomposition of copper carbonate and the sulfidation of copper oxide requires relatively high temperatures, resulting in the agglomeration or clumping of the active component of the sorbent. The reduction of surface area limits the utilization of the active component. High utilization of the active copper sulfide component is desirable to decrease adsorbent bed volume and/or increase the adsorbent service lifetime. Accordingly, there is a need for higher capacity mercury sorbents that (i) are capable of scavenging more mercury per quantity of active component and/or (ii) have higher levels of active component utilization than prior art compositions and methods.